By: SIR AMMAR GULL
Exodus of Afghan Refugees: Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations
Pakistan-Afghanistan Refugee Issue:
In October 2023, the Pakistani government announced that it
would arrest and deport hundreds of thousands of unregistered
foreign nationals and migrants lacking proper documentation.
Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan
“Pakistani officials have created a coercive environment for
Afghans to force them to return to life-threatening conditions in
Afghanistan,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights
Watch.
According to the Pakistani government, there were about 4 million
foreigners in the country before October 31, nearly 3.8 million of
them Afghans. Of those, it says, only 2.2 million Afghans carry a
government-approved document that makes them eligible to stay.
More recently, between 600,000 and 800,000 Afghans are believed
to have arrived in Pakistan after the Taliban assumed power in
2021. Al-Jazeera.
“This is injustice, an injustice that cannot be ignored in any way.
The forced expulsion of people is in conflict with all the norms of
good neighbourliness,” Bilal Karimi, spokesperson for the Afghan
government, told Al Jazeera
“We expect Pakistan’s security forces and civilian government to
change their behaviour. The reaction of Afghans is historically
known to the whole world. Most of the time they don’t show any
reaction, but if they do show, they are recorded in history,”
Akhund’s deputy Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai said
By: SIR AMMAR GULL
“The expulsion of Afghan refugees in such a large volume and in
such a humiliating manner, when winter is coming and the weather
is getting colder, is a cruel and unfair decision,” Karimi said.
The United Nations and International Organization for Migration
(IOM) reported that 92 percent of Afghans leaving Pakistan said
that they feared detention by Pakistani authorities.
On November 17, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) said that the arrival in Afghanistan of hundreds
of thousands of Afghans “couldn’t have come at a worse time,” as
winter has set in and the country faces a prolonged economic crisis
that has left two-thirds of the population in need of humanitarian
assistance.
[The] government of Pakistan is pleased to extend the validity of
the Proof of Registration, or PoR, cards issued to the registered
Afghan refugees … till [31st] December 2023," according to an
official announcement
Why Pakistan is Expelling Afghan Refugees:
The exacerbating Terrorism in Pakistan:
This deportation policy is mainly to fight
terrorism.
Terrorists have sanctuaries near Durand line.
TTP, ISK and many more.
“A significant portion of those involved in
criminal and terrorist activities are among
these illegal immigrants,” Pakistan’s interim
Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said in
November 2023.
On October 3 when the decision to deport
“illegal” refugees was announced, interim Interior
Minister Sarfraz Bugti said of the 24 suicide
bombings in the country this year, 14 were carried
out by Afghan nationals.
By: SIR AMMAR GULL
A Political Coercion of Afghan Taliban to make them stop
letting use Afghan soil to terrorist organizations:
“Pakistan’s negotiations with the Afghan Taliban have
failed repeatedly and this frustration is two years in the
making. Now, seeing they don’t have any leverage over
Afghan Taliban, they are using the refugee expulsion as a
pressure tactic,” Abdul Basit, research fellow at S
Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore,
told Al Jazeera.
Journalist Sami Yousafzai says Pakistan’s deportation
policy is a sign of desperation since it is unable to find
common ground with Kabul over the TTP.
The bilateral fight appears to center on Kabul’s
support for extremists who have wreaked havoc and
killed hundreds in Pakistan over the last two
years. Lynne O’Donnell.
The expulsions come after earlier efforts by Pakistan,
such as trade restrictions, to exert pressure on Kabul
to rein in the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the
Pakistani Taliban, whose attacks on military and
By: SIR AMMAR GULL
police present a severe security challenge to the
Pakistani state. Foreign Policy
Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Amir Khan Muttaqi has
accused Islamabad of using the Afghan immigrant issue to
put pressure on the Taliban government to recognize the
disputed Durand Line as a border between the two
countries.
Sever Economic Stress on Pakistan due to Refugees:
According to Michael Kugelman, director of the South
Asia Institute at the Wilson Center, a Washington-
based think tank, and a specialist on Afghanistan,
Pakistan and India and their relations with the US,
sever economic stress on Pakistan is driving its
deportation policy.
"Afghan refugees were a huge burden on Pakistan's
economy and we could not afford to take care of them
anymore," Abbas Khan, Pakistan's chief commissioner
for Afghan refugees, told Nikkei. "The deportation is
an exercise to bring our house in order so that we
have control over who enters Pakistan and lives in
Pakistan."
Since 1979, the government said in an unpublished
study shared with Nikkei, Afghan refugees have
caused Pakistan's economy a loss of $413.4 billion.
Global aid to help them has only amounted to $4.55
billion, the study said.
Afghan Refugees and Smuggling in Pakistan:
In September, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar ul-Haq
Kakar also ordered strict crackdowns on black markets
and the smuggling of oil, sugar and agricultural products
from Iran and Afghanistan.
Miftah Ismail, a former finance minister of Pakistan, told
Nikkei that smuggling caused Pakistan's exchequer a
loss of almost 400 billion rupees, and controlling it is a
step in the right direction. "The smuggling of U.S. dollars
distorts Pakistan's currency market," he said, "and
By: SIR AMMAR GULL
hence it should be stopped by controlling the flow of
goods to and from Afghanistan and Iran."
Increasing Afghan diaspora in Pakistan:
Afghan refugees can be used by Afghan
Taliban to pressurize Pakistani government.
Promotion of Afghan culture in Pakistan.
Impacts of Deportation of Afghan Refugees on Pakistan:
1. Worsening Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations: As you sow, so shall you
reap: Mullah Yaqoob.
2. Violation of International Human Rights Law: UNHCR and Amnesty
International.
3. Ethnic crisis in Pakistan: Protests in KPK and Balochistan.
4. Exacerbating role of India in Afghanistan.
5. Intensify terrorism in Pakistan.
6. It can cause a fatal blow to Pakistan’s geo-economic policy and
regional connectivity.
Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations: Taliban-Pakistan Relations:
Convergence:
1. Regional integration policy of Pakistan and support of Taliban
2. Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts for the recognition of Taliban
regime as the de-jure authority
SCO summit, 17th extraordinary session of OIC
Imran Khan statements
Convencing extended Trioka and regional countries.
World need to engage with Taliban
By: SIR AMMAR GULL
3. Providing humanitarian assistance to Taliban in these
appalling times
Pakistan pledged about 28 million dollar worth og
humanitarian aid to Kabul. Al-Jazeera.
50,000 metric tons of wheat, winter shelter and medical
supplies
4. Pakistan hosting millions of Afghan refugees
5. Pakitan played a pertinent role in US withdrawal from
Afghanistan
Zalemy Khalizad = success in negotiating peace deal would
not be possible without Pakistan’s sincere and
unconstitutional support
7. Pakistan urging world to unfreeze the economic assets of
Afghanistan
US freezed Afghanistan’s 9.5 billion dollars of Afghan
central Bank deposited in US.
Later, Joe Biden signed an executive order to unfreeze
them and split them between humanitarian Aid and the
victims of all attacks
PM Imran Khan repeatedly urged the International
Community to unfreeze Afghan assets to exert economic
meltdown to avoid economic meltdown
Pakistan even garnered China and Russia support over it
through the platform of SCO.
By: SIR AMMAR GULL
8. Taliban meditating between Pakistan and TTP:
Afghan Financial minister Amir Khan Mutaki confirmed
that Taliban mediated between Pakistan and TTP.
Taliban's Pro Pakistan and Indian evacuating from
Afghanistan
Divergences:
1. Long lasting Durand line 2600 km issue:
Skirmishes between Taliban and park Army over fencing
the Durand Line
matter resolved by Taliban officials
2. Cross border in filtration
drugs Supply illegal trade and illegal immigration
3. Terrorist attacks on Pakistan emanating from our soil
Peshawar attack, TTP, Blf, Bla equal to Johor town, Quetta
attacks
Pakistan Army crossed Afghanistan borders and bombed
the terrorists which also killed dozens of refugees
continuous terrorist and bushes from Afghanistan to park
Army check posts
4. Taliban's close Affinity with TTP
Pakistan wants the surrender of TTP and Afghan soil
should not be used by them
By: SIR AMMAR GULL
Taliban have close relations to them
Moeed Yosuf =Taliban
5. Taliban's rigid view over forming an inclusive government
can cause tensions with Park Taliban's extremist perspective
on women and women rights violations and Pakistan Taliban
relations
Conclusion.
